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Stockboy Editor
Congratulations on unlocking the Level Editor! It's very easy to use, and you'll be cranking out new levels in no time. And if you don't want to make your own, then go to the Add-On Levels menu instead, and click on "Auto-Download Add-On Levels" to get new add-on levels from the internet to play (if it gives you any trouble connecting or downloading, just try again later, the internet is a fickle mistress). Note: this is no longer correct, and addons should be downloaded from the Stockboy Addons page. This page is also available as leveledit.html in the help subfolder of your Stockboy installation. The Basics Using the level editor is extremely simple. Use the Tool Menu to select what you're 'painting' with, left click to plop down whatever Tool you're using, right click to erase, and use the Edit Menu to load, save, set up goals, and everything else you could ever want to do! When your masterpiece is complete, visit The Hamumu Software FAQ Page for details on how to send it in to us so that everyone else in the world can auto-download it and play! That's probably not quite enough details, so read on if you must. The Tool Menu The Tool Menu (pictured here!) is like an artist's palette. First, note that it can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging on the little 4-way arrow at the top. Put it wherever it won't be in your way. You can also click the little downward triangle next to the arrow to "minimize" the menu. Pressing TAB on the keyboard makes the menus appear and disappear. Once you learn that, you'll probably never use that triangle again! The more important buttons on the Tool Menu are below. In the center is a picture of what you're currently using. Press the big left and right arrows to select different types of Floor. The small curved arrows underneath allow you to "turn" your current Tool. Now, most types of Floor don't actually turn. Arrows do, and so do Generators, but that's about it. Instead, many types of Floor have 4 different appearances to choose from. Have you noticed the different kinds of normal floor you see in different levels? Those are all the same Tool - normal floor. They're just "turned" with the small curved arrows. Likewise, there are four kinds of Wall. Many types of Floor come in different colors. It's easy to pick the color you want - just click on it in the Tool Menu. See the 8 color blocks across the top? So, once you've selected the type of Floor you want to put down, the color, and the variation, all you do is left click anywhere on the screen to put it down. If you change your mind, you can right click to erase your work. Easy as that! That's it - that's how the Tool Menu works. So now you're wondering, "How can I put in Items or Critters?" Well, to do that, you need to use the Edit Menu. I'll give you a hint - those huge buttons that say "Items" and "Critters" on them might help. The Edit Menu The Edit Menu is kind of the main control center of the Level Editor. Like the Tool Menu, you can drag the little 4-way arrows around the screen to reposition it, and you can click the downward arrow to "minimize" it. It also has a small sideways arrow at the top, which 'minimizes' the big window on the right side, leaving you with just the set of big buttons ("File", "Set Opt", etc). But that's just housekeeping stuff. To actually use the Edit Menu, you click on the big buttons to select what you want to see in the window. If you select "Floors", "Items", or "Critters", it also changes what the current Tool is in the Tool Menu. Any other button will leave the Tools alone, just changing what you see in the window. For details on what each window does, read on: File The File screen is for loading and saving your work. It lists all the Stockboy Levels (SBL's) it can find in the big black window. To scroll that list, click on the scroll bar next to it (click in the top half to scroll up, the bottom half to scroll down - not as fancy as a Windows scroll bar, but it does the job!). Click on any file to put its name into the typing box at the bottom. Whatever's written in that box is the name it uses when you Load or Save, so don't screw up! Any key you press while this window is open is typed into the typing box, including the keyboard shortcut keys, so don't use them while the File window is open. Make sure your filename ends in ".SBL", or the Level Editor will not be able to find it again after it's saved!! Here's what the buttons in the File window do: * New: Clears everything in the editor, starting you off with a blank new set of levels. * Load: Loads whichever filename is typed into the box! * Save: Saves your level set to the filename typed into the box. * Test: Lets you play the current level. If you hit ESC, finish the level, or get blown up, you come right back to the editor. * Exit: Exits the editor! Set Opt "Set Opt" stands for Set Options. The file you're making, consisting of a bunch of levels, is called a "Level Set", so these are options for the entire set. Makes sense to me. The box at the top contains the name of the entire level set. This is what people will see on the Add-On Levels screen. Any key you hit while this window is open is typed into this box. Beneath that box is a list of all the levels in your level set. Click on one to select it - that makes it the current level, and the whole screen changes to show you that level. Here's what the buttons in this window do: * New: Adds a new level, named "New Level", to your level set, at the end of the list. There is a limit of 20 levels per set. * Del: Deletes the currently selected level. * Copy: Adds a new level to the level set, which is identical to the currently selected level, even down to the name. * Mv Up: Moves the currently selected level up one spot in the order of levels. * Mv Dn: Moves the currently selected level down one spot in the order of levels. Lvl Opt Much like Set Opt, Lvl Opt is an abbreviation.... for..... hmmm.... Level Options! These are the options that define the current level. At the top is the name. Anything you type while this window is open gets typed into that box. Beneath that are two very similar parts, the Goal, and the Fail. These define how the player has to win your level, and how he can screw up and lose your level (shown as "GOAL" and "DO NOT" when they first play your level). For both of these, each word in a box is a button. Click on the first word in a goal (or fail) to cycle through the available goals. When you get the one you like, you can click on the buttons that accompany it to change the specifics of the goal. For numerical values, you can hold down the mouse button for a gradually accelerating change. Right click on numerical values to decrease them. The actual meanings of the different goals should be very clear from your playing of the game. If it isn't, you better play some more! At the bottom, "Time" is used to set a time limit for the level. If it's set to zero, there is no time limit. If it's set to anything else, the player has that many seconds to complete the level. Left click to increase, right click to decrease. "GenTime" is how often, in seconds, Critter Generators on this level make new Critters. You can adjust it the same way as the time limit, but in tenths of a second. Floor Select this to make the Tool Menu display Floors, rather than Items or Critters. In the window, it displays basic information about the Floor you have selected in the Tool Menu. The only other nifty feature is the "Fill Map" button at the bottom. Click that to fill the entire level with the current Floor type. It's a handy way to start off your level. Items Select this to make the Tool Menu display Items, rather than Floor or Critters. In the window, it displays basic information about the Item you have selected in the Tool Menu. That's about all there is to this window! Critters Select this to make the Tool Menu display Critters, rather than Floor or Items. In the window, it displays basic information about the Critter you have selected in the Tool Menu. As you can see, the Player is considered a Critter. Be sure to place a player in your level, otherwise they'll automatically start in the extreme upper left corner, even if that space is a Wall! Extra This menu contains some extra junk which doesn't really fit anywhere else. There are two text boxes here, one for an Author name for the level (which players will see on the Add-On Level screen), and one for the name of a tile set. Click on "Author" or "Tiles" to select which one you want to type into. Any key you press while this window is active will be typed into the selected box. You probably won't ever want to change the tileset name, but if you do, read up in Tile Sets. Generally, it's bad to mess with that. There are also three checkboxes here for some different options to help you while you're editing the level. "Hide Items" prevents Items from being drawn, and "Hide Critters" prevents Critters from being drawn. Don't get confused if you turn them on and wonder why you can't seem to put in any Critters! They're invisible as long as that box is checked. The third checkbox determines what happens when you right click on the screen. If the box is checked, then the Floor where you click will be changed to the basic grey normal floor block. If it's not checked, then right clicking will only delete Items and Critters, leaving the floor untouched. The final option in this window just shows you a list of the keyboard shortcuts to help you remember them. Scores This window is used to specify what the Gold, Silver, and Bronze scores for the current level are going to be. It doesn't really affect anything, since the player can't earn Star Points for playing Add-Ons, but it gives them something to shoot for. Click on "Gold", "Silver", or "Bronze" to select which box will be active. Any number key you press while this window is open will be typed into the active box. Come up with good scores! Impossible ones aren't any fun, and if they're too easy, the player has no incentive to try to do better on your level. Tile Sets In the Extra window, there's a spot to type in a name for a Tile Set. If you are artistically inclined, you can draw your own tile set and substitute it here. Notice though, that you'll have to include the BMP file for your tileset along with your level's SBL file when you send it to people, and BMP files are big! Stockboy does not read compressed BMP files, so you'll have to save them uncompressed, which makes them 300kB in size. If you get the impression you have to be technically inclined as well as artistically, you're getting the picture! Load the file "graphics\basicTiles.bmp" into your favorite paint program and look at it. That is the tile set used for all the original Stockboy levels. If you want to make your own tiles, all you have to do is make a copy of that file and make any changes you want. Which specific part of the image makes each tile can't be changed though, so for instance if you want to replace the basic grey floor, draw your replacement in the same spot - the extreme upper left (0,0-31,23 to be exact). The tiles are 32x24 pixels in size. When you're done, put your new tileset into the graphics subdirectory of your Stockboy directory, and type in the new filename in the Extra window of the level set you want to change. When you click the "Tiles" button again, it will load your new file and immediately apply it. Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts always make life easier. Remember though, you can't use these (except for TAB and ESC) when any window is open in the Edit Menu that accepts typing. Here they are: Tips & Notes * Get used to the TAB key - you should be doing almost all your work with the menus hidden, then you can pop them up whenever you want to switch Tools. * When you put down a Door item, it automatically puts a certain Floor under it ("Door Tile"). This is necessary for the door to work right, and you can't put a different kind of Floor under the door. So don't freak out about it. * A special trick: Hold down the SHIFT key with the File window open. Notice how "Load" changes to "Merge". If you Merge in a new level set, its levels get appended onto the end of the currently loaded level set, rather than just replacing it. * Remember there's a 20 level limit per level set. If you use the "Merge" button we just mentioned, and it causes there to be too many levels, the extras are just discarded. * The Add-On Levels screen doesn't automatically put "By" in front of your Author name, so you should add it yourself. Instead of saying "Billy Bob", say "By Billy Bob". The reason it doesn't put it in is so that you could use the Author box for something else if you wanted, like a brief description. * The "Fill Map" button on the Floor window is a great way to start off your level layout. If you're making a big spikey level, start by filling the map with Spikes. Making a maze? Start by filling with Walls. And so on! * In the windows where you can type things in, you're not limited to the size of the box when you type! In fact, notice that it prints whatever you're typing in the bottom left corner of the screen as well, so if you do exceed the size of the box, you can still see what you're doing. All text boxes are actually limited to about 30 characters. * Visit the Hamumu Software website at www.hamumu.com to send us the levels you make - we'll add them to our Auto-Download collection, and other players will be able to load them into their copy of Stockboy with a click of a button! If you later improve it, we can put that up and it will automatically upgrade everybody's copy. Category:Stockboy